A Palestinian man, 47-year-old Bassam Za'ul from the southern West Bank village of Husan was awoken at 3:30 am on Saturday when more than a dozen Israeli military vehicles stormed his house.

Za'ul says soldiers then told him and his family to leave within five minutes; they told him that "the home is now under army control."

Za'ul told Ma'an that Israeli soldiers treated his family harshly and beat his sons, 22-year-old Basil and 21-year-old Ahmad when they refused to leave the house. "We were forced to leave at gunpoint," he said.

"My family consists of eight, including a 4-month-old baby girl, and all of the sudden we found ourselves in the street, shivering," Za'ul said.

Neighbors told Ma'an via telephone that Israeli soldiers had turned the house into a military base and watchtower. They erected a fence around the house and raised Israeli flags on the roof. Soldiers removed windows and replaced them with sandbags.

The apartment is at the third floor of a three-storey building. Za'ul's brother lives in the ground floor, and the soldiers restricted his movement.

Za'ul insisted that he was not given a warrant before the evacuation was ordered, although his apartment had been ransacked five times over the past week, the last of which was on Friday evening when Israeli infantry troops filmed the house inside and out.

The house is strategically located on a bypass road, leading to an illegal Israeli settlement, Betar Ellite. Located near Abu Bakr As-Siddiq Mosque, Israeli forces long ago erected a security fence to protect Israeli vehicles from stones tossed by Palestinian youth.

Za'ul emphatically denied that youth had ever thrown stones from his own house, though.

Two young Palestinian men have been shot and injured by Israeli forces that invaded Al-Far'a refugee camp north of the West Bank city Nablus on Saturday morning.

Eyewitnesses told Ma'an that seven Israeli military vehicles stormed the camp at 1:30am and opened fire at a group of youth in the center of the camp.

Palestinian Red Crescent medics said that they evacuated 17-year-old Imad Tayih who was shot in the thigh, and 23-year-old Thabit Raja who received a gunshot to the foot. Their wounds were described to be "moderate."

Local sources in the camp reported Israeli forces withdrew at 4:00am. No arrests have been reported.

Israeli forces have been targeting the camp over the past few days attempting to assassinate or seize an activist affiliated with the Islamic Jihad's military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades. With this stated goal, the Israeli army has ransacked and searched dozens of homes in the camp.

Israeli forces on Friday evening raided the northern West Bank town of Azzun, east of Qalqilia, imposing a curfew, eyewitnesses told Ma'an.

Forces blocked the western entrance to the town, called Al-Izba. Last week, the northern entrance was blocked by Israeli forces. Witnesses confirmed that they saw infantry troops deployed around the town.

A week earlier, protesters removed a gate connected to the wall, which is now being used at a Palestinian parking lot in the city. An official with the Popular Committee Against the Wall said that such actions should be expected in the future.

"Any tool that the occupation uses to oppress us, we will use it for our own services," the campaign said in a statement sent to Ma'an.

"Palestinians have the determination and the belief that this wall will be removed," it added.

A delegation of journalists and students from Belgium also joined in the demonstration. In addition to the student group, citizens from Ireland, Denmark and England were present on Friday.

The Israeli-built West Bank separation wall is displacing Palestinians from their homes at alarmingly increasing rates, according to a report issued Thursday.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) conducted a survey on the impact of the Israeli separation wall, finding that the percentage of displaced households had increased by 58% since June, while closures have doubled.

By the end of June 2008, nine governorates were affected directly by the wall: Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarem, Salfit, and Qalqilia, in the north of the West Bank; Jerusalem, Ramallah and Al-Bireh in the mid-region; with Bethlehem and Hebron in the south.

Fieldwork took place between June and July 2008 and covered 171 localities. 171 localities were affected during the summer months of 2008, compared with 149 localities by the end of May 2005.

The main findings indicated that 14 localities are located behind the wall: 13 localities in the northern West Bank (five in Jenin, seven in Qalqilia, and one in Tulkarem), as well as one in Bethlehem.

The results showed that 49,291 dunums of land have been confiscated since the construction began and through June 2008. Most of the confiscated land was in the northern West Bank (22,141 dunums), according to the report.

In the mid-region, 13,875 dunums were confiscated, while a similar 13,275 dunums were seized in the south.

Israeli forces invaded the West Bank town of Tuqu on Thursday afternoon and threatened to demolish the house of a young Palestinian man who fatally stabbed an Israeli man earlier in the Gilo settlement.

Israeli troops called through loudspeakers urging the family to leave the house "before it is destroyed."

Meanwhile, stone-throwing Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops who entered the village in 20 vehicles shortly after the stabbing was reported.

Palestinian security forces identified the man as 20-year-old Mohammad Salem Al-Badan, from Tuqu, which is south of Bethlehem. The stabbing took place in Gilo, which abuts Bethlehem to the north.

Israeli troops later withdrew from the area around the house, after seizing Al-Badan's sister, Maysa, and another young man from Tuqu, Muhammad Ash-Sha'ir.

Israeli troops are still present in an area of the village called Al-Amour. Clashes between Palestinians and the invading troops are ongoing. So far, one Palestinian youth has been reported injured.

Two Israelis stabbed

Contradictory reports of the stabbing have emerged. Israeli medics first reported that Al-Badan was shot dead, and later said he was only injured.

Israeli police said that they stopped a Palestinian man while on patrol in Gilo. The man reportedly drew a knife and stabbed a police officer, then continued and stabbed an 86-year-old man, who later died of his wounds.

An Israeli eyewitness told Israeli Channel Two: "I was riding my car in Gilo when I saw an Israeli policeman and a young Palestinian man arguing verbally. Then they fought physically. When I stopped my car and went out of it, the policeman suddenly fell on the ground. I didn't see any knife or sharp tool at first but the policeman said that he was stabbed four times when he then shot the young Palestinian man but he didn't fall and he kept running towards an area that contained about sixty stairs and I followed him."

The witness continued: "I was surprised that the other policewoman didn't get out of the car and follow him. I kept following the young Palestinian man when he suddenly faced a 60-year-old Israeli man and pushed him on the ground. At last I caught him and stifled him with my hands while I was so afraid he would kill me."

Police and security forces have closed most of the entrances to Jerusalem.

"That the settlers are even here is illegitimate," he told Reuters. "And on top of that they engage in acts of violence against our citizens, particularly at this time of year when they pick olives, and with all the olive tree signifies for our people," he said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad on Wednesday issued a harsh condemnation of the attacks by settlers, calling them "terrorists."

"The settlers being here-in itself-is illegitimate. And on top of that they engage in acts of violence against our citizens, particularly at this time of year when they pick olives, with all that the olive tree signifies to our people," Fayyad told Reuters.

"This is nothing short of terrorism by the settlers," he said.

Fayyad called the olive tree "a symbol of the determination of the Palestinian people to stay on their land and to preserve and defend it."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday said the Palestinian Authority (PA) planned to plant seven million new olive trees across the West Bank, one for each Palestinian, as a response to the attacks.

More than 20 Israeli military vehicles invaded Al-Far'a Refugee Camp, northeast of the city of Nablus, on Wednesday morning after Israeli patrols were attacked by two Molotov cocktails.

Israeli troops have imposed a curfew on the camp.

Local sources told Ma'an that Israeli forces seized 15-year-old Mohammad Shihadah Subeh following clashes with Palestinians in the camp.

Israeli forces also stormed house of 28-year-old Samer Jamil Abd Al-Jawwad, a leader in Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades. Israeli troops searched the house and told Al-Jawwad's family that he must surrender to the Israeli intelligence services immediately.

Eyewitnesses said Al-Quds brigades' activists hurled Molotov cocktails at Israeli military vehicles during the incursion. Meanwhile, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah claimed responsibility for throwing one of the explosive bottles at an Israeli military jeep near Al-Far'a village.

Israeli radio had earlier reported that two explosive bottles were fired at Israeli patrols operating near Al-Far'a Refugee Camp with no injuries reported.

Israeli naval forces fired on Palestinian fishing boats on the shore and off the coast of Al-Mina, in Rafah, at the southern Gaza Strip on Monday night, witnesses reported.

Fishermen told human rights volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement that their nets had been damaged by live rounds. No injuries have been reported.

The firing, which went on for several hours, began offshore. The Israeli navy then fired on the shore.

The shooting is an apparent violation of a four-month old ceasefire between Palestinian groups and the Israeli government.

Since October 2006 the Israeli navy have enforced a six-mile fishing limit, although the Olso interim agreement designates a 20-mile limit. Gazan fishermen also report frequent harassment and attacks by Israeli gunboats.

More than one hundred Israeli settlers attacked and beat up Palestinian farmers and foreign volunteers collecting olives at Jabal Odala, an outskirt of the northern West Bank town of Kafr Qaddum north east Qalqiliya on Monday.

Settlers injured several olive pickers and damaged vehicles in order to prevent the group from collecting the harvest. The group was driven away from the area by the violent mass. Several British volunteers were also injured.

Head of the town's local council Muhammad Shteiwi said that his own family members were beaten by settlers who then blocked off the olive grove and prevented families and volunteers from entering the area.

Shteiwi appealed to humanitarian organizations to intervene and save the town from settlers' frequent attacks.

The village has been the target of frequent attacks by the settlers from the Qedumim settlement, which was established on lands forcibly confiscated from the properties of Kafr Qaddum.

The countdown to the end of the six-month Egyptian brokered ceasefire between factions in the Gaza Strip and Israel has begun. The agreement, meant to end the siege on the Gaza Strip, reopen crossing points and halt the firing of homemade projectiles into Israel will end in 19 November.

With one month to go rumors have begun circulating that Israel has asked the Egyptians to work on obtaining an extension to the ceasefire. For their part, the Palestinian factions have been discussing whether or not it is in their interest to extend the agreement, given Israel's non-compliance with all of the terms.

During the first weeks of the ceasefire both sides violated the terms, and a "tit for tat" statement war was launched comparing violations.

Adding to the speculation are recent media reports quoting Hamas leader Osama Al-Muzayni as saying his movement has agreed on a three-month extension on the condition that Israeli proves its commitment to the agreed upon terms.

Hamas spokesperson Ismail Radwan, however, has assured the press that consultations on the proposed extension have not yet begun. He said internal Hamas talks would first be necessary, after which other factions would be consulted.

"We need a united Palestinian decision and a comprehensive vision," Radwan said. He noted that in any future agreement Egypt should ensure that Israel sticks to the terms, which did not happen last time.

We affirmed that Egypt should place pressure on occupation to stick to ceasefire conditions, which he certainly did not," Radwan added.

Abu Ubayda, spokesperson of Al-Qassam Brigades expressed similar sentiments. "We do not trust the enemy," he said, "and we are fully prepared for the post-ceasefire stage. Ceasefire does not mean a lifelong truce.and Israel did not comply with its pre-conditions."

Spokesperson of the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Abu Salim, echoed the same sentiments. "Israel should stop all aggression against the Palestinian people, reopen all crossings and end the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip," he said.

The actions of violent Israeli settlers across the West Bank have escalated this olive season as attacks against Palestinians in their fields or olive groves have become frequent and dangerous; two more attacks occured on Sunday in the northern West Bank.

Palestinian security sources confirmed on Sunday two violent attacks by the settlers from Mevo Dotan, an illegal settlement near the Palestinian villages of Ya'bad and Arraba.

One group of setters attacked a Naji Lutfi Zuheir from Arraba, who was harvesting olives with his family at 10am on Sunday. Zuheir was badly beaten by the setters, who also stole the olives he and his family had harvested.

Zuheir's face and body were bruised, and settlers continued to drive the family out of their land.

This is the first recorded attack by settlers from the Mevo Dotan settlement, who have traditionally lived a world apart in the settlement, using Israeli bypass roads and not interacting with the Palestinian population.

In Qalqiliya governorate, several sources reported a troop of Israeli police officers and settlers from the illegal Qedumim settlement attacking a second group of Palestinians and internationals harvesting lands in the village of Kafr Qaddam.

The event was organized by officials in the governorate with help from the Popular Committee Against the Wall, to help ensure the safety and security of Palestinians harvesting their olives this weekend.

In this incident four French volunteers were arrested, who had been helping the family pick olives. Clashes between the locals and the settlers erupted after setters tried to push the harvesters off the land.

The Palestinian Journalists' Committee has condemned Saturday's attack by Israeli settlers against a group of Palestinians and a journalist who were collecting olives from an olive grove in Hebron on Saturday.

The Committee called the attack against journalist Abd Al-Hafith Al-Hashlamon, who was covering a story on the olive harvest in Palestine, a "discriminative attack" and said it was the "the job of international institutions to intervene and stop these attacks," since Israel is allowing them to continue.

This is just one in a long series of attacks, said the Committee, which praised the work of Palestinian journalists for their work in defending the rights of the Palestinian people

There is a new campaign aimed at assassinating Palestinian leaders inside Israel and the West Bank, according to former advisor to the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat Bassam Abu Sharif.

Abu Sharif warned Palestinian leaders on Saturday that he had received information on an "extremist Israeli organization," most of whose members are in the Israeli army, who are preparing to use military-issue weapons to carry out a program of assassinations.

"The available information on the assassination plot did not list the names of those targeted," said Abu Sharif, but added that it appears to include Fatah members living in Israel, as well as leaders within the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Hamas.

He said that the homes of leaders in East Jerusalem, Jaffa and Ramla were going to be targeted and the campaign was designed to force leaders out of their homes.

Weapons for these attacks, Abu Sharif explained, have been smuggled into homes of army personnel near Qalqiliya, on the west side of the separation wall, where the former Latrun villages were.

Abu Sharif called on all sides to prevent the implementation of the plan. He advised that the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs present a memorandum to the secretary general of the UN asking that he force the Security Council to ensure the plan is halted.

A similar report came out of the Israeli press earlier this week, after Palestinian-Israeli Knesset member Sheikh Abbas Zakkur was assigned a full-time guard. It was reported that the Knesset received information detailing a planned attack on the MK by a soldier in the Israeli army posted in the north if Israel.

An elderly Palestinian was attacked by Israeli settlers in his fields near A'zmut village east of Nablus on Saturday. He sustained moderate injuries after being hit with several large stones thrown by the group.

The 63-year old Mustafa Abed Al-Khaleq was moved to hospital for treatment.

According to Al-Khaleq dozens of settlers attacked him as he worked in his olive grove, nestled between the villages of Um-At-Tuyor and A'zmut, which is also near the illegal Israeli settlement of Alon Moreh.

"The settlers threw stones at my head and hands and pushed me off my ladder," explained Al-Khaleq. The elderly man fell to the ground, immobile, at which point one of the settlers stole his mobile phone.

After the incident Israeli Civil Administration officials arrived on the scene, and encouraged the man to file a complaint to the Israeli police.

Palestinian farmers from the northern West Bank city of Salfit said on Saturday they are considering filing legal procedures against an Israeli settler who released his livestock on their farmland behind the separation wall.

Some of the farmers told Ma'an that settlers had released camels, horses, donkeys and sheep in their fields.

Others claimed that settlers regularly accost farmers at the gate opening through the wall, interrogating them about their plans.

Dozens choked on tear-gas as peaceful demonstrators marched towards the construction site of the separation wall in the village of Bil'in. Delegations from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and a French solidarity movement attended the rally.

The group raised Palestinian flags and banners demanding Palestinian farmers be permitted to pick olives from trees on their land. The protest called to remove the illegal wall and settlements, stop land confiscations, remove checkpoints and road blocks, and the release of all the Palestinian detainees.

Supporting the Palestinian farmers was the PLO delegation from the National and International Affairs Department, who heard an update from the Popular committee against the Wall. They gave the committee a plaque commending their efforts, and some joined in the protest.

Demonstrators carried ladders and tools to pick olives, but when they reached the gate in the wall in tended to let Palestinians pass into their fields; in the West Bank but on the far side of the wall, they were stopped with sound grenades and tear gas.

Some demonstrators damaged the gate and brought a part of it to the village center near a Yasser Arafat memorial.

The children of the Ar-Ramadeen Bedouin camp, located on the west side of Israel's separation wall south of the West Bank city of Qalqiliya, do not have a school to go to.

On 16 October Ma'an sent a reporter and cameraman to the village, accompanying the governor of Qalqiliya and heads of security departments in the district. The delegation was there to investigate the harsh circumstances they face as Palestinians in a Bedouin camp annexed to the west side of the separation wall.

The Bedouin community sent their senior leaders to meet the delegation. Visits from West Bank dignitaries, or even West Bank Palestinians are rare, since they mean crossing several checkpoints, having permits in order, and explaining numerous times the purpose for their visit.

The Ar-Ramadeen area is made up of 2,000 people, who are part of five interconnected campsites.

The delegation sat to listen to the Bedouin elders who expressed their growing concerns about life in the area. A group of five children sat close to the adults, and their ears perked up at the mention of a kindergarten or elementary school being set up in the area.

Currently the children of the Bedouin community have to travel almost two hours to get to school in the morning, between accessing public transport, crossing the separation wall and arriving in the Qalqiliya district schools that they attend.

The children, who inched closer to the group as talk of establishing schools continued, were all in school, between the third and the eighth grades. They found a responsive ear in Ma'an's reporter and told him about life in a Palestinian Bedouin camp that by chance of geography happened to be on Israel's side of the separation wall.

Ala, in the eighth grade, did most of the talking, though his friends would chime in if he missed any details.

He explained first how every morning the kids in the area left their homes with their backpacks and headed towards the Israeli controlled gate, which has been installed by the Israeli army, in addition to the separation wall that keeps the community out of the West Bank.

Once lined up at the gate Israeli soldiers search the children's bags, check their id cards if they are old enough to have one, and one-by-one send them through the gate towards the busses. On the way home the same process occurs; children line-up, bags are checked and they are ushered back through the gate.

Ala's least favorite part is how solders "look at them as if they are guilty or they came from another world."

On weekends the children are not allowed to leave the valley where the camps are located unless they have a special permit and accompany their parents. "We can't even participate in extra-curricular activities," he added, since the bus leaves at a scheduled time. Even if they arranged to all stay late, the after-work traffic gets thicker and checkpoints take longer in the evenings.

Asked what the kids do after school, Ala explained that they played among the tents and huts of the camp sites, or help their parents with chores. "There is TV some evenings, when the electricity works, and sometimes we go to the Qalqiliya zoo."

"But that is only once a year," added Bilal, who is in the seventh grade.

If they could decide what the delegation were to provide for the camp, the kids decided they would want a school in which to study, a small playground and a park.

One of the children even said he wanted to go to university so he could be a teacher in the school that would be built in their camp area.

Twelve-year-old Jihad was diagnosed with Leukemia on 14 April 2008 in the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. While the hospital was equipped to diagnose Jihad, it could not treat him. Jihad was allowed into Israel to travel to the West Bank where he had a bone marrow transplant, later needed to go to Israeli hospitals for chemotherapy.

Jihad receives chemotherapy treatment four times every two months. He is not permitted to stay in the Israeli hospital following his chemotherapy, even though he is weak both physically and in terms of his immune system. Although Umm Jihad has applied for a permit for him to stay, the application was denied.

Umm Jihad is terrified that her son will die on one of the trips to or from the hospital. She says she stays awake at night worrying about her son; whether the treatment will work or whether he will succumb to the cancer.

She also worries about money, since the treatments for Jihad are expensive, as are the constant trips in and out of Gaza. Since the treatment started the family has spent 1,000 US dollars in travel and 3,000 in hospital and other expenses.

"My husband is the only breadwinner for our family, and he is responsible for nine members. Each of them needs food, clothes, education and many other things," she said.

But her husband is doing his best. He has managed to sell nearly every valuable item in the house to pay for travel expenses to and from Israeli hospitals.

"The political situation is so complicated between Israel and Palestine," the mother said. "Israeli hospitals can provide medication for Jihad, but they won't let him stay after the chemotherapy," which makes the boy extremely weak.

Because Israel refuses to grant the 12-year-old a permit to remain in the country for treatment, Umm Jihad shuttles between Gaza and the hospital on a daily basis. But her cancer-stricken boy, who must endure checkpoints and strip searches on his way to chemo treatments, "is hanging in there," his mother says, proud of her son.

"But I'm always away from my other children, [I'm] never sure how to manage their studies, school, friends or lives when I'm away day after day," she confessed, as if her absence deserved the guilt she feels for "not being able to give my kids the attention they need, or kiss them goodnight."

The woman said that thus far, she and her son have had to return to Gaza after each chemo session. But the treatments cause Jihad to become severely nauseous, leading to relapses in his condition. And doctors say that the constant travel is now "too risky," that he needs a consistently sterilized atmosphere if he hopes to survive.

Unable to comprehend how a "political situation could possibly be harming my child's health," Umm Jihad is distraught.

"My baby is slipping away and I can't do anything about it," she said. The mother said that she has already made numerous calls trying to get help for her child, a simple permit from Israel.

Holding onto the hope that someone might hear her story and intervene is her "light at the end of the tunnel." And it is the only thing keeping her from "shedding more tears" than she already has. So the desperate mother waits, hoping that by the time someone helps, "it won't be too late."

The Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Brigades said on Friday that the time has come to end the truce with Israel, according to a statement.

"All the factions in the Gaza Strip must end the truce with Israel," according to a spokesperson who delivered the statement in a phone call to Ma'an. This is because "Israel has not stopped their attacks against Palestinians," he said.

The statement came within the greater context of Al-Aqsa leaders saying that they support the upcoming Fatah conference to be held in Amman, the party's sixth.

Because of its "great potential for solving Fatah's problems," Brigades leader Abu Oday Al-Mansour said his movement is encouraging the conference.